Who Is ?
by Scribbler
Summary: The Yu-Gi-Oh! characters are more than the sum of their parts. One question. Twenty answers. And still there's more to them.
1. Anzu

**Disclaimer****: **Questioningly not mine.

**A/N****: **I set this as a creative writing task for several of my classes, using themselves and someone precious to them as their subjects. The brief is simple: twenty lines after the question 'Who is (insert name)?' and nothing obvious or dreary. As they were scribbling away, I found myself writing versions for fandom characters in my head. This was actually really fun, and so easy to use in any fandom. I heartily encourage everyone to try it. I may do more myself, but it's always interesting to see other people's take on characters too.

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_**Who is …?**_

© Scribbler, April 2010.

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Who is Anzu?

Anzu is _battement frappe,_ _tombé en avant_ and _pirouettes _at three in the morning to distract from nightmares of falling metal crates and glowing artefacts.

Anzu is the voice in Yuugi's head not even Yami can hear.

Anzu is dozens of discarded fabric scraps used to practise the perfectly even stitches every serious dancer uses to attach ribbons onto her ballet slippers.

Anzu is an encouraging smile and a clichéd but welcome cheer from the sidelines.

Anzu is not sticking to the sidelines when things get tough. Or dangerous. Or both. Especially both.

Anzu is trying to cook, failing, and then trying again because if her friends won't be defeated by magical megalomaniacs there's no _way_ she'll let tempura defeat her.

Anzu is the first girl to impress Mai despite being sucky at Duel Monsters.

Anzu is an inimitable sense of fashion nobody actually wants to imitate.

Anzu is a broken Gameboy.

Anzu is ignoring the kid with the weird hair until, one day, she sticks up for him and he evermore sticks _to_ her like glue.

Anzu is a shared sunset and trying not to hurt that it's actually the other you watching it with her.

Anzu is a singed Burger World uniform stuffed in the very back of a wardrobe.

Anzu is hopes and dreams and optimism about a future none of them may actually see.

Anzu is choking on sand while screaming uncontrollably on the roof of a runaway train.

Anzu is a shredded tissue fluttering onto the floor beside a bed in a burns unit.

Anzu is Jounouchi falling sideways, clutching between his legs and cursing stupid girls, their stupid pointy shoes and their stupid hurt feelings when a guy makes a perfectly complimentary remark about her rack.

Anzu is a very particular scowl from Seto Kaiba.

Anzu is ice with all the give of steel no matter how many times you punch it.

Anzu is being too perceptive and yet, in some ways, totally oblivious of the world – and people – around her.

Anzu is a friend. A best friend. A preachy friend. A bossy friend. A loyal friend. A throw-in-the-towel-with-the-popular-set friend.

Who is Anzu?

Well, most of all Anzu is Anzu, and those who know her agree that's quite enough.


	2. Jounouchi

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Jounouchi

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Who is Jounouchi?

Jounouchi is _not _Katsuya, and anyone who says different is gonna get a punch in the kisser.

Jounouchi is fists like socks full of damp sand.

Jounouchi is a cocksure grin and a thumbs-up right before an unwinnable battle. _Every_ unwinnable battle.

Jounouchi is a promise, extracted from his best friend under pain of death, to beat the ever-loving shit out of him if he even _starts_ turning into his father.

Jounouchi isn't just an older brother, he is Big Brother, and the world had better leave his little sister alone if it knows what's good for it.

Jounouchi is knowing someone has your back in a fight.

Jounouchi is one quarter of a smiley face.

Jounouchi is a high-kicking, shoulder-holding, back-slapping, energy-boosting, off-key, wholeheartedly-awful VICTORY DANCE!

Jounouchi is a joke taken too far, hurt feelings, and a heartfelt apology afterwards that is always accepted – until next time he takes a joke too far.

Jounouchi is the barrier between Shizuka and all potential boyfriends. Yes, even his own friends. _Especially _his own friends.

Jounouchi is the ability to cross a garbage-strewn apartment in pitch darkness without waking a sleeping drunkard.

Jounouchi is the feel of warm hands on your face when your arms and legs have gone numb from the manacles, and even though you can't see who is holding you, feeling reassured anyway.

Jounouchi is a clutch of panic that turns to anger in the same instant when someone threatens anyone he cares about.

Jounouchi is a madcap dash to school in the morning, not because he's late, but because if he slows down Honda will catch him and steal back his breakfast.

Jounouchi is a very particular kind of slouch; the kind that is actually buzzing with energy to leap into action at a moment's notice.

Jounouchi is a talkative guys being tight-lipped when asked about childhood memories.

Jounouchi is baffling jealousy in the pit of the stomach if anyone mentions the name 'Valon'.

Jounouchi is long hours studying Duel Monsters strategies from books Grandpa Mutou lent him, when he famously can't pick up a book for school to save his life.

Jounouchi is realising you're in love with a woman only when you're choking on her dust.

Jounouchi is a request to a best friend to teach him how to ride a motorcycle.

Who is Jounouchi?

Jounouchi is Jounouchi, unique and irreplaceable, and that's a really good thing because no way could the world handle more than one of him.

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	3. Otogi

A

**A/N:** Maybe not the most obvious choice, but inspiration is a fickle mistress.

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**Otogi**

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Who is Otogi?

Otogi is a rich boy. A very rich boy. Baby.

Otogi is fine taste and finesse in the gawky body of someone whose legs always seem a little too long when he walks.

Otogi is not admitting he is anything less than perfect, even when he screws up.

Otogi is staring out of the window at board meetings, wishing he was somewhere (anywhere!) else.

Otogi is a powder blue Cadillac, lovingly restored but rarely driven.

Otogi is standing over a tiny blonde girl, using his own body to shield her as the Australian psycho in armour hurtles towards them, and wondering: _How the hell did I even get to this point?_

Otogi is not his father and never will be. Never.

Otogi is that niggling, shoved-aside embarrassment that always comes when he sees Yuugi and remembers their first meeting.

Otogi is a mirror reflecting an ugly blue school uniform and not regretting it in the slightest.

Otogi is an empty seat at dinner and being five years old but never talking to Father about where Mother went.

Otogi is kohl eyeliner, applied _just_ right. Baby.

Otogi is dim sum, clear crab shell meatballs, congee porridge, sweet and sour carp, braised trepan, turnip cakes, lotus leaf rice and any other delicious Chinese food he can get his hands on.

Otogi is the perfect mask of elegant blankness when Jounouchi pretends to throw up at the sound of all that 'weird ass food'.

Otogi is being awake in the small hours, looking through photo albums of an exotic, emerald-eyed woman before she became his mother, next to a painted Romani wagon and smiling in a way that makes him wonder what the big joke is.

Otogi is realising the joke was his father and him, and how they killed her spirit and broke the wheels of her wagon.

Otogi is friendship, found almost too late in life, but prized all the more for it.

Otogi is respect, hard-earned but never forgotten once you've earned it.

Otogi is being sucked into a virtual world with a pretty girl and a pointy-haired idiot, and not being sure which one he'd miss more if they died.

Otogi is friendly rivalry – until Honda nearly throws him off a freaking airship!

Otogi is black leather, a waistcoat and dice earrings straight from the 1980s, but not kitsch in any way. Baby.

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